All the time in the world

Sunday 7.54pm

My father Eric died today, peacefully at 2.30 in the morning. I must say it was not a complete surprise, 70 years of smoking will catch up with you eventually, but at 84 he did ok. He has had difficulty swallowing for long time now and despite my mums best efforts he has got weaker and weaker until finally collapsing a week ago on Friday. In hospital they radiographed him and of course he had lung cancer. The cancer has been growing for some time, pressing on his oesophagus, hence the difficulty swallowing. Put on a drip and antibiotics he pulled back a bit during the week but worsened again and with there being no real hope of recovery my mum along with my sister and brother made the brave and sensible decision to withdraw any more treatment except oxygen and allow him to gradually fade away.

I’ll write more about him, but not tonight – the words are not there. No, tonight I’ll just drink to his memory.